Screen tough guy Neville Brand died of emphysema on April 16, aged 71. He entered the film industry in 1948 after ten years in the US Army where he was the fourth most decorated soldier in World War Two. His movie credits include TV’s Killdozer, Eaten Alive, Psychic Killer, The Ninth Configuration, Without Warning and Evils of the Night. He was a semi-regular as Al Capone on TV’s The Untouchables (1959–62).
Saucy British TV comedian Benny (aka Alfred) Hill died on April 18, aged 67. His film appearances include Who Done It? (1956), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Another famous British comedian, Frankie Howerd, died of a heart attack the following day, aged 70. Although better known for his TV work, his movie credits include a couple of Carry On films, Mouse on the Moon, the underrated The House in Nightmare Park and the dire Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The original bride of Frankenstein, American actress Mae Clarke, died of cancer on April 29. She was 81. Besides being a victim of Karloff’s monster in Frankenstein (1931), she also had a grapefruit smashed in her face by James Cagney in Public Enemy, starred in the serial King of the Rocket Men and appeared in the 1960s Batman TV series.
Lon Ralph Chaney, great-grandson of the silent film star, was killed in a car crash on May 5.
German singer-actress and screen legend Marlene Dietrich (aka Maria Magdalena von Losch) died on May 6, aged 90. Her numerous films include The Blue Angel, The Scarlet Empress, The Garden of Allah, Destry Rides Again, Hitchcock’s Stage Fright, Around the World in Eighty Days and Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil.
American actor Richard Derr, who portrayed pulp hero The Shadow in Invisible Avenger (1958), died on May 8, aged 74. His other movie credits include Castle in the Desert, When Worlds Collide and Terror is a Man.
TV actor Robert Reed (The Brady Bunch etc.) died of bowel cancer on May 12, aged 59. Among his film appearances are The Maltese Bippy, and the TV movies Haunts of the Very Rich and Mandrake.
Italian actress Marisa Mell, who co-starred with John Phillip Law in Mario Bava’s Danger: Diabolik, died of cancer on May 16. She was 53.
B-movie hero Marshall Thompson died of heart failure on May 18, aged 66. Best known to TV audiences for the series World of the Giants (1959), Men Into Space (1959–60) and Daktari (1966–8), his many film roles include Cult of the Cobra, It! The Terror Beyond Space, Fiend Without a Face, First Man Into Space, Bog and the TV movie Cruise Into Terror.
British actress Pippa Steel(e), who appeared in Hammer’s The Vampire Lovers and Lust for a Vampire, died from cancer on May 29. She was 44.
Portly British character actor and playwright Robert Morley died on June 3 from a stroke. He was 84. Amongst his many films are The Ghosts of Berkeley Square, Beat the Devil, Around the World in Eighty Days, A Study in Terror (as Mycroft Holmes), Way Way Out, Some Girls Do, Theatre of Blood (with Vincent Price), The Blue Bird (1976) and The Wind.
Veteran British character actor Laurence Naismith died on June 5, after a short illness. He was 83. His numerous movies include Ray Harryhausen’s Jason and the Argonauts and The Valley of Gwangi, Village of the Damned, Eye of the Cat, Scrooge (1970), Quest for Love and The Amazing Mr Blunden.
Singer/actress Georgia Brown died on June 6, aged 58. She appeared in the movies A Study in Terror, Tales That Witness Madness, Nothing But the Night (with Lee and Cushing) and The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, and played Klingon Worf’s human stepmother on TV’s Star Trek: The Next Generation.
British stage actress Maxine Audley, who appeared in Peeping Tom and Hammer’s Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, died of a heart attack on June 23. She was 69.
Leading 1940s American actress Brenda Marshall (aka Ardis Ankerson Gaines) died on July 30, aged 76. Her credits include The Sea Hawk, The Smiling Ghost and Strange Impersonation. She married William Holden and retired in the 1950s.
American TV actor John Anderson died on August 7 from a heart attack, aged 69. He appeared in such films as Psycho and The Satan Bug.
Welsh-born character actor Mervyn Johns died on September 6, aged 93. The father of actress Glynis, he appeared in Hitchcock’s Jamaica Inn, The Halfway House, Scrooge (1951), The Day of the Triffids, Hammer’s remake of The Old Dark House (1962) and was the star of the classic 1945 Dead of Night.
One of the screen’s best purveyors of crazies, Anthony Perkins, died of an AIDS-related illness on September 12. He was 60. Perkins portrayed Norman Bates in Hitchcock’s classic Psycho and three sequels (directing Psycho III in 1986). He also appeared in On the Beach, The Trial, The Black Hole, Crimes of Passion, Edge of Sanity and the TV movies How Awful About Allan, The Sins of Dorian Gray, Daughter of Darkness and I’m Dangerous Tonight. He starred in the 1990 syndicated TV series Ghost Writer and directed the cannibalism comedy Lucky Stiff.
Respected British stage and screen actor Denholm Elliott died of AIDS on October 6, aged 70. His numerous movie credits include The House That Dripped Blood (with Lee and Cushing), Quest for Love, Madame Sin, Hammer’s To the Devil a Daughter (with Christopher Lee), Vault of Horror, The Boys from Brazil, Hound of the Baskervilles (1977 and 1983 versions), Brimstone and Treacle, Underworld (scripted by Clive Barker) and as Indiana Jones’ friend Marcus Brody in Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. On TV he appeared in the 1968 version of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and portrayed the title role in the 1969 adaptation of Dracula.
Comedy actor Cleavon Little, best known for his starring role in Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles, died of colon cancer on October 22, aged 53. He also appeared in the vampire comedy Once Bitten.
Singer Roger Miller, whose hits include “King of the Road” and “England Swings”, died on October 25 from cancer, aged 56. He voiced Allan-a-Dale in Disney’s animated Robin Hood.
Actress Regina Carrol, wife of director Al Adamson, died on November 4 of cancer. She was 49 and appeared in such grade-Z horrors (often directed by her husband) as Blood of Ghastly Horror, The Female Bunch, Brain of Blood, Dracula vs. Frankenstein, Satan’s Sadists, Doctor Dracula and Carnival Magic.
Character actor Sterling Holloway died from cardiac arrest on November 22, aged 87. He appeared in such films as Professor Beware, International House (with W. C. Fields and Bela Lugosi), Alice in Wonderland (1933) and The Blue Bird (1940), before lending his vocal talents to Disney’s Dumbo, Bambi, Alice in Wonderland (1952), The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, and the Winnie the Pooh series.
Anglo-Swiss born Paula (aka Rita) Corday died during gall bladder surgery on November 23. She was 68, and appeared in The Body Snatcher (with Karloff and Lugosi), Dick Tracy vs. Cueball and The Black Castle (also with Karloff).
Veteran genre actor Robert Shayne died from lung cancer, aged 92, on November 29. A regular on the TV series Superman (as Inspector Henderson) and The Flash, his numerous film credits include The Face of Marble (with John Carradine), The Neanderthal Man, Invaders from Mars, The Indestructible Man (with Lon Chaney, Jr.), Tobor the Great, War of the Satellites, Kronos, The Giant Claw, Spook Chasers, Teenage Caveman, How to Make a Monster and Son of Flubber.
Robert F. Simon, who portrayed J. J. Jameson in the Spiderman TV series, died from a heart attack on November 29, aged 83. His film credits include Face of Fire, The Wizard of Baghdad and The Reluctant Astronaut.
Harry Ellerbe, who appeared in The Magnetic Monster and with Vincent Price in The Fall of the House of Usher (1960) and The Haunted Palace, died on December 3. He was 91.
Veteran character actor Hank Worden, who found cult fame late in his career on TV’s Twin Peaks, died from natural causes on December 6, aged 91. His movie credits include The Searchers (as Mose Harper), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (with Karloff) and The Ice Pirates.
British character actor Percy Herbert died the same day from a heart attack. He was aged 72. His many films include Hammer’s One Million Years BC and Quatermass 2, Night of the Demon, Night of the Big Heat (with Cushing and Lee), Ray Harryhausen’s The Mysterious Island, Casino Roya
le and Doomwatch. He also appeared in the “Killer With a Knife” episode of TV’s Cimarron Strip, a feature-length Jack the Ripper western scripted by Harlan Ellison.
Vincent Gardenia (aka Scognamiglio), who played Mushnik in the musical remake of Little Shop of Horrors (1986), died on December 9 from a heart attack. He was 71 and also appeared in the remake of Heaven Can Wait (1978) and the TV movie The Screaming Skull (1973).
American leading man Dana Andrews (aka Carver Daniel Andrews) died of pneumonia on December 17, aged 83. Best remembered as the hero of Laura and Night of the Demon, his other movie credits include Crack in the World, The Satan Bug, Brainstorm (1965), The Loved One, Spy in Your Eye, The Frozen Dead and Airport 1975.
FILM/TV TECHNICIANS
Hungarian-born Andrew Marton, aged 87, died on January 7. As second unit director he filmed the classic chariot race in Ben Hur (1959), co-directed King Solomon’s Mines (1950), and directed the science fiction adventures Crack in the World and Around the World Under the Sea.
Veteran Walt Disney animator Jack Kinney died on February 9, aged 82. His many films include Pinocchio, Dumbo, and such classic shorts as Der Fuehrer’s Face (which he directed), The Reluctant Dragon and The Three Caballeros.
Screenwriter/director Richard Brooks died on March 11, aged 79. Best known for his film The Blackboard Jungle and his Oscar-winning screenplay for Elmer Gantry (which he directed), Brooks also scripted Cobra Woman and produced and directed In Cold Blood.
Hungarian-born director Laslo Benedek died the same day, aged 65. His credits include The Wild One and the 1971 chiller The Night Visitor.
Genre director Jack Arnold died of arteriosclerosis on March 17, aged 75. His classics of the genre include The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Revenge of the Creature, It Came from Outer Space, Tarantula, The Incredible Shrinking Man, The Space Children and Monster on the Campus.
Indian director Satyajit Ray died April 23, aged 70, less than a month after receiving an honorary Academy Award. His 1968 movie The Adventures of Goopy and Bagha contained many fantasy sequences, The Music Room benefited from its Gothic atmosphere, and one of the trio of episodes in Three Daughters was an old-fashioned ghost story.
Action director John Sturges died on August 8 from a heart attack, aged 82. His films include Bad Day at Black Rock, The Satan Bug and Marooned.
Cameraman and special effects pioneer Hans F. Koenkamp died on September 12, at the age of 100. His many credits include the 1925 Wizard of Oz, Noah’s Ark, Moby Dick (1930), Svengali (1931), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935) and The Beast With Five Fingers.
Pioneer Hollywood producer Hal Roach died on November 2 from pneumonia. He was 100 years old. After teaming up with Harold Lloyd in 1916, he made comedies with Our Gang, Will Rogers and Laurel and Hardy. His later sound films include Topper, Topper Returns, Topper Takes a Trip, Turnabout and One Million BC.
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